Promises
by Arista Lycoris
Summary: Riku Oneshot. Zaria used to work for Maleficent, but a promise she made to Riku gets her landed on Destiny Islands with Kairi; as her guardian. The Darkness still taints her heart even after abstaining from it for a year and more promises are made RikuXOC


A year ago I was drenched in darkness and even now it still taints my heart, gripping me, taking partial control when I feel my anger rising and I find myself thinking how easy it would be to snap that little bitch's neck. Of course, something, or someone keeps me in check, for which I am eternally grateful. My best friend, Kairi, kept me from lashing out and physically hurting people for the last year. With all the lack of fighting, my snide remarks obtained plenty of practice and were finally back up to par. Some of them made my friend laugh or nod in agreement; others made her give me looks of astonished disappointment. I tried to keep those looks to a minimum because it hurt to see that look on her face, directed at me, her bright blue eyes dejected and upset. Every time she looked at me that way, a gnawing guilt crept up on me and began to eat away at my stomach. I couldn't do that to her.

The way I'd met Kairi was a strange one, I'd never hated her, mind you, not like others would have in that predicament, I felt the occasional raging jealousy, but the only thing I'd particularly hated about her was her situation. To be without a heart seemed so forlornly agonizing, so utterly painful; not for her, but for those who loved her to see her so empty. That's right; a year ago I was in the employ of Maleficent. She had been the one to pick me up off the streets of Traverse Town and give me food, a bed and power, but for a price. For years she had enslaved my free will with her magic, turning me into a mindless slave. Then _he_ came and her attention was divided, more and more with every problem that had occurred and soon I was myself again, no longer her toy.

_He'd_ asked me once, before he lost himself, to protect her if the day came when he could not. The one who had all but torn my heart from my very chest asked me to protect another girl, but if it would make _him_ happy, I'd do it, because there was no other reason for _him_ to grace me with that rare smile.

"Kairi, would you go to the islands with me? Wakka and Tidus won't take me!" Selphie, another of Kairi's friends, another too-happy island dweller, someone she'd known since her childhood asked; her bright green eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"You know that boy I played with? The one that was always on the islands with Riku and me?" Kairi asked in response, voice soft as though she were trying to choose her words carefully.

Selphie tilted her head in confusion, "What other boy?"

"I can't remember, not his name, or his face."

"Maybe it's just your imagination?"

Kairi shook her head, auburn hair swinging back and forth slowly, "No. His voice always used to be there and now it's gone, so I won't go back to the islands, not until I can remember."

"Aw, and if Kairi doesn't go, then Zaria won't go either!"

Kairi and I both gave the brunette an apologetic smile at the same time and the girl let out a sigh before telling Kairi to write a letter and we continued on our walk home from school. About half way down the hill, Kairi collapsed. I pivoted to catch her as she fell and gently set her down on the ground, before dropping to my knees and checking her pulse then for a fever a moment later, but other than the fact that she was unconscious, she was perfectly fine; which made no sense. My black eyes darted around, looking for anything that could have caused her to collapse, but found nothing.

A few seconds later she woke up, pushing herself into a sitting position, confused, "Zari, what happened?"

"You collapsed," I replied, checking her forehead again, "Have you been feeling ill lately?"

"I feel fine."

"Kairi?" Selphie questioned; eyes wide, "Are you okay?"

Kairi nodded in response before getting to her feet, "It starts with an S. Right, So-ra?"

* * *

_ The waterway in Traverse Town was almost quiet, the soft flow of the water made the only sounds outside of Kairi's breathing. The girl was younger than me, but only slightly, a little shorter, less muscular, but she was fit, a natural fitness, not one earned through blood, sweat and tears like my lean muscles had been. She looked weak and frail, but she wasn't afraid, not like me. I had betrayed Maleficent, betrayed the darkness that had taken me in and given me power and the closest thing I'd ever had to a home, gone against everything I knew, all for _him_ and he'd enslaved himself to the darkness for _her_._

_ But I'd promised to protect her. I'd already braved the Key Bearer's retainers, the talking animals hadn't been too happy to see me after my encounter with the Warriors of Light in Halloween Town not long before. I had to convince them and Kairi that I'd promised _him_ to protect her now that he couldn't. They only believed me because of _him_, when he'd gone through all the trouble to stop himself and told me to go with them._

_ Now I was back in Traverse Town, the place I'd been as a child, the place I'd always been in, the place that was only for those whose worlds had been destroyed. I never had a world, I was born in a gummi ship in the middle of nowhere, my parents had died in an accident that I had somehow, miraculously survived. And now I was back where I started, wondering if someone would pick me up this time and help me along as Maleficent had claimed she'd done. Or, when the Door was finally closed, would I disappear with Traverse Town? Would this be the end of me?_

_ Then I was standing on a square of white stone, surrounded by darkness, Kairi a few feet away from me, standing on a patch of beach sand, but something was wrong, her area was growing and moving away slowly, mine was stationary and falling apart, getting smaller. My heart jumped into my throat, was I going to… die?_

_ "ZARIA! GO WITH KAIRI!" _He_ shouted for me to go with her. To keep my promise, to protect her. I looked up to see him smiling at me from the other side of the door, _he_ was going to seal himself in the darkness to end it all, the Door had to be closed, to keep all the worlds from falling into destruction. My eyes, the proof that I still resided in darkness, widened; but I nodded and jumped toward Kairi, barely landing on the sand, and started to slip. She ran over to me, grabbed my hands and pulled with all her meager might, dragging me up enough to keep the darkness beneath from swallowing me whole._

_ Kairi saved my life.

* * *

_

"Do you think this will work Zari?" she asked, holding up a bottle sealed with a cork, a single page was held within, something she'd been up late writing the night before, a letter to the boy neither of us could remember, but then… we weren't sure if I'd met him in the first place.

We were in our regular clothes now, no longer the school uniforms. Kairi wore a pink dress with a zipper down the front and a slightly shorter, white dress underneath it. I on the other hand, didn't like the color pink, or showing off my thighs, but the beach was hot and I wasn't going to drown in my own sweat, so I wore a pair of black shorts that covered the top half of my thighs and a white tank top. Clothes were hard for me to find, you'd be surprised at how difficult deep lavender hair made things.

I shrugged once, "We can hope right? I've never written a letter, but maybe."

"Never?" she asked.

"No one to write to."

"Oh." Her face fell, as though she had asked something she shouldn't have, but I didn't mind her questions, I never did. It took a lot to make me angry, it always had; just like it took a lot to make me hate something, to love something… it took a lot for me to feel something for that matter. Most of the time I simply responding according to the situation, in order to leave the feeble feelings of other's relatively intact, like the smile I'd given Selphie the day before. With Kairi it was a little different. I was so used to having her around that I think I would get angry were something to happen to her, "Hey, Zari, do you remember your parents?"

I shook my head, "Nope, not even their names." She looked up at me, her blue eyes wide as she brushed a bit of shoulder length hair from her face, "Can't miss them though; didn't know 'em." I smiled at her, a real smile too, one that let her know it was perfectly fine for her to ask me things, "Aren't you gunna send that off?"

Her eyes widened again as she looked at the bottle in her hands, as though she'd momentarily forgotten about it and then she let out a small laugh, "Right!" After placing the bottle in the water, Kairi watched it float away for a few moments, "Maybe waiting isn't good enough."

I saw a portal open not too far away, one of darkness and jumped up, "Kairi, get behind me!" out of the portal came a man with red hair, spiked back rather than up.

The man apparently heard what Kairi had said and ignored me completely, "My thoughts exactly, if you have a dream, why wait? One of life's little rules, got it memorized?"

"Who are you?" Kairi asked from behind me and a little to my left. As she spoke all the memories came rushing back to me, I knew who Sora was now.

"Axel," the man replied, almost amiably, "I happen to be an acquaintance of Sora's, why don't we go see him?"

"Sora?" Kairi asked and I tensed even more. If this Axel really had been a friend of Sora's then I would have at least known his name. _He'd_ kept a close watch on the Key Bearer and Maleficent had told me to send Heartless after all those who'd come in contact with him, to make his heart weaker. I had never heard the name Axel before. A dog barked loudly, bounding up to Kairi and I before barking again and running around in circles, its wiry black tail held high and its thin yellow fur standing on end. I cast it a curious glance, but otherwise kept my eyes on Axel, until a multitude of chrome colored creatures appeared in a half circle around us, slowly moving closer. A whistle sounded and I whispered under my breath, asking Kairi what had happened behind me, my eyes never leaving Axel's smirking form, she replied just as quietly, "Some kind of portal opened and the dog-" he barked as if to confirm that it was indeed him, "-ran over to it."

"You and I have something in common you two; we all miss someone we care about. Hey, I feel like we're friends already."

"Kairi, head for the portal," I whispered.

"You're not acting very friendly!" she shouted and the moment I heard her feet slapping against the sand, I turned and followed her through the portal.

* * *

_ "Zaria, come here."_

_ "Yes, Maleficent."_

_ "Show this boy around the… inhabitable areas of the castle."_

_ "Yes, Maleficent."_

_ A boy my age looked upon me with narrowed aquamarine eyes, so piercingly bright they almost hurt to look at, but otherwise followed me out of the room that I thought of as Maleficent's office. His hair was silver, falling in layers about his shoulders, flowing behind him slightly as we walked. As soon as we were far enough away from Maleficent's 'office' I dropped my monotone voice and stopped walking in a business like fashion. Turning to the boy, I gave him a curious stare, which he returned with a slightly surprised glare, "What do you want?"_

_ "What's your name?_

_ "Riku…"_

_ "Hi Riku, I'm Zaria. Though you probably know that already."_

_ "What's with the sudden attitude change?"_

_ "Oh." My black eyes darted around nervously, checking once again for any sign of Maleficent before I whispered softly, "Maleficent thinks I'm under her mind control still, but I'm not. I pretend like I am though." It was true, but I was not completely free from her control. If Maleficent wanted something of me, I would do it, but ever since this boy had shown up a month ago, her attention had been slowly taken off me, letting my mind control my body once again._

_ He blinked twice and began to walk passed me, "Keep showing me around or she'll figure it out."_

_ "Hey, Zari. How long have you been here?"_

_ "Years and years. Ever since I could walk."_

_ "Really? Is Maleficent your mother or something?"_

_ "Oh hell no! She just took me in when I was wandering the streets of Traverse Town with nowhere else to go."_

_ "Oh."_

_ I stood before Kairi's motionless body as she sat in the cabin of Captain Hook's ship; her head drooped down into her chest. Another girl was not too far away, though she looked upon me with fear evident in her features. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be protecting Kairi. Not when Riku had changed so much because of her. He'd become cold, manipulating, dark. He was stronger than me now, better in the sword, better with Dark Magic, better at everything. Maleficent had all but cast me aside when Riku had finally surpassed me in the magicks, the area that had always been my best. It was a bittersweet feeling, I was happy that Maleficent was leaving me be, no longer even trying to control my mind, but to feel so utterly useless was painful. I heard voices on the floor beneath me and looked at the other girl, clad in a blue nightgown, "You will say nothing about my presence." She nodded fearfully._

_ I could be frightening, I hadn't known that before. I'd never seemed to pose a threat to anyone, even the Key Bearer and his retainers hadn't seen me as a threat until after I'd defeated them. But those without power feared those in possession of it and this girl, though older than me, had no power and feared me for it. Smee, the little old First mate, came in and motioned toward Kairi, who I threw over my shoulder in response and stalked out of the room; Smee pushing Wendy along behind me. Then Riku sent me back to Hollow Bastion, I wasn't needed there anymore. That was painful too.

* * *

_

"Where are we?" Kairi asked after the portal closed behind us. It felt similar, as though we were enveloped in darkness, but it was strangely void of most things, odd symbols floated around in the air and the dog barked again. We turned to see another portal open and bright light shining through. When the dog jumped through, I figured it would be a good idea to follow.

"Kairi, we'll go through at the same time, alright?" she nodded once and I counted to three. Then we jumped through.

"Um… hey, you alright?" I opened my eyes groggily for a moment and jumped up a second later, looking around wildly for Kairi, she was right next to me and I let out a sigh of relief. "Whoa there!"

"Who are you?" I asked immediately, trying to stand protectively in front of Kairi, but it was kind of difficult with her lying down like that.

"I'm Hayner, that's Pence and she's Olette. Who are you?" a kid about my age was speaking, his eyes narrowed, dirty blond hair looked kind of messy but kept at the same time.

"You came flying out of the wall with this dog and nearly gave us heart attacks!" A large boy spoke, dark hair and excited dark eyes looked back at me as he made motions with his hands to get his point across. A girl laughed and I looked over to see another person, looking relatively feminine in comparison to me, wearing a good deal of orange, her eyes were like Selphie's, bright and green, her hair was oddly styled, with long strands strewn about her shoulders, but otherwise kept short.

Kairi let out a tired murmur behind me and I turned around, checking her forehead for a fever because she was unconscious, but then I realized that I had been too and it was probably the strain of the darkness on her body. I had probably woken up first only because I was still tainted from years of being submerged in it. She didn't wake up. So I turned back to the others, my hair falling over my shoulders, causing me to look scornfully upon the long locks. It reached my waist now and I hadn't tied it up earlier, thinking that it would be a normal day and no one would come out of a dark portal and attempt to kidnap Kairi. I had taken to wearing my hair down, at first because Kairi requested it, but then I simply became too lazy to deal with the annoyance of doing anything more than brushing it in the morning.

The girl in this group of strangers noticed the look I gave my hair and held out a tie she'd had on her wrist, "Here."

I looked at it cautiously, but I didn't get a bad feeling from these people, they felt different from most of the people I'd ever been involved with, which probably meant they were good people. So I took the hair tie and as I pulled my dark lavender hair back into a ponytail, I said, "Thanks."

"So, who are you?" the one called Hayner asked again.

"I am Zaria. Where… is this?"

"Huh? This is Twilight Town! You don't know it?" Pence asked, dark eyes widening in surprise.

"Obviously not if she came flying out of a _wall_!" Hayner sighed. Best friends obviously.

Kairi let out another murmur, this time her eyes opened slowly and she sat up even slower, looking around with wide blue eyes, "Zari… where is this?"

"Apparently it's called Twilight Town," I responded, "Are you alright?"

"Mhm," she replied with a nod and a smile, "Thanks!"

"I didn't do anything Kairi, I just stuck with you."

"And I'm thanking you for that!"

"Wait a second…" the girl, Olette said, looking at the two of us with eyes the size of saucers, "Your name is Kairi?" The girl in question nodded, a blank look on her face, "A guy named Sora was looking for you a while ago!"

"Sora?" she asked, jumping up and looking at Olette eagerly, "Really? Where is he?"

"Well… he said he was coming back. If you wait until then..."

"Okay!"

Kairi continued to talk to the three of them for a while, occasionally saying something about me, but otherwise I did my best to fade into the background and be invisible. I didn't like conversations, much less with people I didn't know. Not only that, but they'd met the Key Bearer, Sora, meaning they'd met Donald and Goofy, the duck would have let loose a few comments about how the darkness was evil and if they learned my story, they'd come to hate me and possibly Kairi too. Call me paranoid, but I wasn't going to put her through that.

After a while Olette looked at nothing longingly, "What a romantic story." She sighed hopefully, and then turned to me, "What about you? What's your story Zaria?"

I sighed and looked away, ready to tell them that I'd rather not share, but then another portal opened before us and once again I was on my feet, ready to fight, "What took you so long Kairi?" Axel asked as he stepped through the darkness, a cocky smirk on his face, "I figured you'd be here, but I tell ya, you've got a lot of guts, jumping right into the darkness like that. Of course, for Zaria over there, it was probably a relief, wasn't it?" I growled at him, struggling to summon up my weapons, but failing, after a year they just weren't coming to me as easily. He laughed at me and walked forward, "Weak aren't you?" then he literally pushed me aside as though I were nothing more than a bothersome fly and grabbed Kairi's wrist, dragging her back toward the portal.

"Let go of me! Let go!" Kairi shouted, pulling with all her strength against the man, but getting nowhere. Hayner and Pence attacked him too, but it was futile, they just went right past him. I jumped forward again, letting out a battle cry. "Zari! Help!"

* * *

_ "You are pathetic Zaria. He hasn't been training nearly as long as you have and yet he has surpassed you in all areas. Everything. You are useless and a fool. Unable to even earn your keep! Get out of my sight you useless, worthless little wretch. While you're at it you can get out of my castle too."_

_ I gathered the few belongings I had, mostly journals and flight logs from the trip that my parents had been on when I'd been born. That was how I knew my name and birthday, it was how I knew how old I was, it was how I knew there was no place for me to go now. I had given myself to the darkness, played puppet for Maleficent and now… now I was unwanted even here. I couldn't go back to Traverse Town, the residents there surely knew of my side by now, surely the Key Bearer and his retainers had returned at some point and told them of their defeat at my hands. They would not believe that I had been cast aside like a soiled cloth, and even if they had, I was still steeped in darkness, I was still going to be considered evil. Though I wasn't really. I had dark thoughts, often actually, I liked the idea of hurting people for my own sick pleasure, but… I rarely acted on those feelings and when I did… I regretted it. I put up an emotionless front, but underneath… I was still a child and I knew it. I may have grown up faster than most people, lost more than most people, but that didn't change that I had only lived for fifteen years. I was still a child._

_ Now I was nothing more than a useless one. Someone with no purpose, no friends, no ideal, nothing. I was an empty shell, not even a person. Then _he_ appeared before me, aqua eyes filled with worry, but behind that lay something darker, something… manipulative, but what did I know? "I convinced Maleficent to let you stay. You beat Sora once and if I have to leave Kairi alone, then you're to guard her."_

_ There was still something I could do?

* * *

_

"So. You're awake."

I opened my eyes and looked up. It wasn't Axel anymore. Looming over me was a different man, an older one, with long blue hair and a scar across his face. He looked cold, calculating; the definition of evil in my mind, "Who are you?" I grunted, staying still for the moment. When he said nothing, I pushed myself to my feet and scanned the area, "Where's Kairi!"

"Elsewhere."

"Take me to her!" The man smirked and it set me off. I ran at him, fist raised high, he continued to smirk, but when I got close, he disappeared, when he reappeared, less than a second later, he was behind me. In a single motion I dropped to the floor and swung my leg out, trying to trip him, but he moved again, grabbing my wrist in his hand and locking my arm painfully behind my back.

"You can't beat me." He murmured, opening another portal and pushing me through, a moment later I was kneeling in front of a cell, inside were Kairi and the dog. At our appearance, Kairi jumped up and called my name. I struggled against the man's grip for a moment and he twisted my arm. There was a loud pop and pain engulfed my entire arm. I let out a weakened whimper of pain as the man pushed me into the cell, my right arm hanging uselessly at my side, tears of pain streaming down my face, my vision blurring and my mind blank, "You can stay there. With the one you only care for because of a useless promise."

"You're wrong," I spat, not thinking about what I was saying, not caring, "I don't protect Kairi because of that promise. I protect her because she's… important to me… she's… my best friend… my first friend. That promise was only… the opportunity… for friendship." Then everything went dark.

The next thing I knew, Kairi was kneeling next to me, my head in her lap. As my eyes finally began to focus, I could feel the remnants of my tears on my face and carefully lifted my left arm to wipe them away. Kairi was talking to me, but for a moment I ignored her and tried to move the fingers on my right hand. Pain shot through my entire arm and I let out an angered hiss, "Son of a bitch dislocated my _arm_." Kairi's eyes widened a bit at my language, but then she'd never actually seen me angry.

"Zari…?" she asked tentatively, "Are you alright?"

"I can't turn my head without hurting my shoulder; can you tell me if it's swollen?"

Kairi nodded once and looked over me before answer a second later, "Yeah, but it's starting to go down."

"How long was I out?"

"Only a few minutes, are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine." I sighed, sitting up carefully, "I'll be better once the damned swelling has gone down, other than that I'm perfectly fine, just really, _really_ pissed off. I'll warn you now… though you've probably figured it out already, I use a lot of… bad words when I'm pissed about something…"

She nodded once, "What you said earlier, before you fell asleep, was it true?"

Oh crap, here goes the mushy shit, "Yeah, I really do think of you as my best friend, and yeah, at first it was all because I promised Riku I'd protect you, but you know what, you're one of those people that just forces your way into someone's heart and you've got a pretty big place in mine."

"I would hug you right now but—"

"Please don't," I sighed, a small smile playing across my lips, "As nice as it would be on a normal day, I get the feeling it would be more painful this time around."

"Yeah."

And then _another_ portal appeared, this time behind us. My eyes widened and Kairi turned around, "What…" a blonde girl with pale eyes stepped out and looked around for a bit.

Then motioned for Kairi and I to move forward, "Believe in yourself. C'mon! Hurry!"

Kairi stood up and approached the blond, hesitating for a moment as I got to my feet, and took hold of her hand. A faint light shone from their clasped hands and I blinked, the light still hurt my eyes, just a bit though.

The three of us were running down a white hallway, I was still trying and failing to summon up at least one of my short swords, occasionally asking Kairi about the swelling in my shoulder. I had a plan, sort of. I knew what I was going to do the second my shoulder was no longer swollen, and after that I would just try to get Kairi out of danger, though I wasn't exactly sure how to go about that part of my plan. I would have to think about it as I went. We rounded a corner and nearly skidded to a stop, the blue haired man was there again. "Namiǹe."

"Namiǹe?" Kairi asked inquisitively, looking from the asshole to the blond girl.

"Kairi," the man said quietly, "I'm afraid leaving is not an option." I threw my left arm out in front of Kairi and stood in front of her protectively. The man smirked again, "You. What can you do? An injured throwaway." I flinched from his words as though they were a physical blow, the man knew more than he should have, but that knowledge didn't make his words hurt any less. "I'll take you to see Sora, Kairi." This time Kairi stood in front of me, almost pushing me to the ground, our positions were reversed, now it was like Kairi was protecting me. My eyes widened as she not only did that, but shook her head in defiance. "You don't want that?" the man asked.

"I do. More than anything. But not with you around!" She shouted at him, giving him the best glare she could muster up.

"If I had a heart, this is where I'd die of laughter." He took a step forward and I almost pleaded with Kairi to move away from him, that she couldn't fight him off, but she looked at me and said she'd stand a better chance than I would with my arm in its condition. I couldn't argue with her there, but still I tried. Then the creatures behind the man fell to the ground and began to disappear. Another person stood behind him, also clad in a black cloak, but carrying a sword that I would recognize anywhere. If possible my eyes widened even more. I didn't hear what the blue haired man said upon turning around and seeing the man wielding that sword.

I did hear Namiǹe though. "You can take it from here, Riku."

"Riku?" Kairi asked incredulously, staring at the cloaked figure who was obviously too tall to be Riku as we remembered him. The figure fired what I recognized as dark magic at the other man and when Blue Bitch blocked it with his arms and jumped back, the figure lunged forward, grabbing hold of the blue man and slamming him into the wall. The blue haired guy put a hand on the wall and created a portal, falling backward into it. The cloaked figure went to follow, but Kairi shouted, "Wait!" and the dog bounded forward. The cloaked figure backed away from the dog, but it stayed with him and Kairi walked over, while I remained behind, still staring with wide eyes and still speechless, "Riku, you're really here!"

She removed his hood to reveal the face of Ansem, the man who had taken over Riku's mind and body a year ago; who enslaved him to the darkness, but something was different. There was no menacing darkness radiating off of him, just an anxious and uneasy feeling. He glanced at Kairi, then at my shocked face and finally looked away, as though he didn't want us to see him. Finally I got a hold of myself, not just the shocked part, but the part of me that was still utterly enraged about my _arm_ being _pulled_ out of its _socket_ and approached the person that was and wasn't Riku, he was Riku on the inside, but not on the outside. "And I thought you were going to venture away from the darkness after all that happened last year." I sighed, waving my left hand about dismissively, "You know… that look doesn't really work for you."

He frowned at me and Kairi gave me an almost horrified look, but I just gave Riku a level stare, my face blank, mouth set in a firm line. Finally he sighed, "Sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. I didn't know you for _years_, I just knew you for a few weeks. Besides…" I let out a sigh and looked at the ground, "I'm sorry too."

"What for?"

"Just now. I couldn't protect Kairi. I'm sorry. I broke my promise."

This time he sighed, "You're a little worse for wear Zari, your _arm's_ not even in its _socket_." At least I wasn't the only one who felt the need to put the emphasis on that.

* * *

We walked for a while, silence reigning between the three of us, until finally Kairi broke the silence, "Oh, Zari! Your shoulder isn't swollen anymore, does it still hurt?"

"Of course, but…" I took a deep breath and took hold of my right arm with my left hand, "It won't for too much longer." I held my breath and shoved, grinding my teeth to keep from screaming as I used the least effective and most painful method to return my arm to its rightful, working position. Kairi let out a gasp and even Riku made a shocked little sound. As soon as I heard a rather secure sounding pop, I let go of my arm and released the breath I was holding, muttering along with my exhalation, "Son of a bitch." I stretched out my fingers and felt a little twinge of pain, but that was absolutely normal. I didn't expect my nerves to be perfectly okay after that, even the muscles were stretched out and tightening painfully, but I could move my arm. "Don't worry." I finally sighed, looking at Kairi who was rather freaked out by the show I'd just put on. "I've done it before. Numerous times. My arm feels a _lot_ better now."

"Don't scare me like that Zari!"

"I prefer being useful to being deadweight and having a useless arm well, made me useless. I can't exactly help anyone out like that, can I?"

She sighed, accepting my twisted logic for the time being, but the way she was looking at me, I knew that I would get an earful later; she wasn't going to forget that. Riku raised Ansem's eyebrow at me questioningly as I stretched, cracking my knuckles as I did, my arm really did feel better.

We continued to walk after that and finally heard voices, Kairi and I looked at each other and jogged ahead a bit, coming to a ledge, over which we saw: "Sora! Sora it's really you!" I looked over the ledge as well and saw the spiky haired Keyblade master get covered in Shadows, Kairi let out a gasp and shouted, "You leave Sora alone!" before jumping over the _freaking ledge_.

"Kairi!" I shouted after her, jumping over as well as the shadows got to her too. Just as I reached her, there was a flash of light and Riku was pulling her up by the arm, handing her a flowery keyblade as she got to her feet.

She took the blade with a determined look on her face, "This time, I'll fight too! You know Sora's completely useless without us! C'mon you two!"

I wanted to make a little comment about how Sora was perfectly fine without me, but held back out of respect for Kairi. It wouldn't do to insult her like that. I took another deep breath, a new wave of determination flooding through me, and concentrated, picturing my short swords in my mind and calling them to me. It took a moment longer than it should have, but then they were in my hands. It was reassuring and nostalgic to wield them once again, and it was as if the spirits of my blades were happy with this new cause, no longer causing harm to others, but protecting them, caring for them and using my blades as a means of defending them. It was a good feeling.

I saw Riku had his odd sword in hand as well and we nodded to each other once before running after Kairi, slaughtering shadows on the way.

It took a while for a certain brown haired Key Bearer to show up with his two strange friends, but they did eventually show up, the duck telling Kairi just how great she was and Kairi took on an attitude that vaguely reminded me of… myself. She flipped her hair and asked almost arrogantly, "Oh really?" I let out a soft snort of laughter and Riku nudged me in the ribs with his elbow, signaling me to be silent. The two love birds continued to chat amiably until Donald let out an alarmed quack. Oh dear, they saw me and Ansem/Riku.

"She's on the dark side again!" the duck shouted. I wondered vaguely if there had been some translation errors and took the chance to mumble about how I would only return to the dark side should they have Kairi's cookies. Riku gave me a strange look before opening a portal behind him and taking a few steps toward it.

"Ansem! Wait!"

Riku stopped and the portal vanished. I just kind of… stayed relatively still, my right arm still involuntarily twitching because it wasn't quite better yet.

Sora continued to talk, "I never thought I'd see _you_ again, and even now, thinking about all that stuff you did before makes me really mad. But you saved Kairi and I have to be thankful for that, right? So… thanks." It was almost as if it physically hurt him to say that, but most people would never have admitted that their mortal enemy, or one of their mortal enemies, helped them out of a tight spot, even if that enemy wasn't really an enemy, but a best friend in disguise. Oh man… something was wrong with this whole group, including myself.

Riku nodded once and began to take off again, so I let out an annoyed sigh and overdramatically motioned toward Kairi as she shouted, "Riku! Don't go!"

I motioned to Sora as he spoke, "Riku?"

"Sora! Come here and say something to him!" Kairi ordered as I motioned to her in the same fashion I had earlier. I was having a little too much fun with their drama, but otherwise I would feel like a minor supporting character in all of this, which, technically, I was and would be if this was some drama seen on television, however it wasn't and I was in the same casting as Donald and Goofy, but while they were looking around confused while I was the strange one with all the answers and the annoying personality.

Kairi took Sora's hand and she almost literally forced him and Riku to _hold hands_ before telling the Key Bearer to close his eyes. A moment later and Sora was on his knees, crying like a little baby, "Riku! It's really Riku! You're really here!" Of course, I shouldn't have been mentally poking fun at him for crying, I mean, I had been crying only a little while before, for much different reasons of course, but still, my eyes had leaked then as his were now.

"Pull it together Sora."

"I looked everywhere for you!"

"I didn't want you to find me."

"Why not!"

"Then that was you helpin' us out wasn't it?" Goofy finally asked as Kairi gave me a look and I finally stopped with my dramatic motioning.

"Huh?" Well the duck wasn't very bright, even though I had no idea what was going on.

"All those clues we kept finding! That musta been Riku!"

"I was beginning to think you guys would never catch on. Sora never did pick the brightest of friends." Riku sighed, a small smile appearing on Ansem's face.

I let out a small snort of laughter, drawing everyone's attention to me; oops, I really hadn't meant to do that but… with a sigh I smirked at them,."Didn't he pick you, Riku. Calling yourself dim now, are you?"

"Zari…" he sighed.

I shrugged and Sora looked at me questioningly, "Zari?"

"It's a nickname Riku and Kairi call me. They take a single letter off my name. Apparently it's a form of endearment, but I can only understand that coming from Kairi," I replied, stretching my arms out above me, "I think every time Riku uses it, he sounds annoyed, so… it must be a warning!"

"Zari's been with me constantly this past year, Sora. We're best friends!"

I rose an eyebrow at Kairi, I hadn't realized I'd become _her_ best friend too. How strange was that? I smiled a little and messed up her hair jokingly, "Yeah, someone has to keep me from breaking faces and someone has to keep you from falling down stairs. For someone who doesn't get hurt in any other way possible, you sure do try to go tumbling down the stairs a lot."

"Don't remind me, you broke your foot helping me that fourth time."

"Fourth… time?" Sora asked, confused.

"Let's just say, Kairi's growth spurt didn't get along with unlevel ground."

A moment later Sora, as easily distracted as I vaguely remembered him being, turned back to Riku and asked, "Why do you look like that?"

Then Riku launched into an explanation about how he'd defeated Ansem's heartless when it entered his heart, but he wasn't strong enough and still needed the power of darkness, and to be able to use it he had to immerse himself in darkness itself and so… he took on Ansem's appearance. Kairi looked up a little worriedly, "Does this mean you can't change back?"

"The battle isn't over yet, I still need the power of darkness, so I still need this body."

"Well that's vague." I muttered under my breath, but I wasn't heard at all, luckily, because Riku's answer seemed to be good enough for the rest of them. Sora said something about Riku being Riku and asked Donald and Goofy a question before we all kind of set off again, our group doubling in size.

We got a little farther before we saw something shooting out of some unidentified location, pointing at a giant heart shaped moon, or moon colored heart in the sky, whatever you want to call it. Riku told us that it was because of King Mickey and DiZ then he corrected himself and said Ansem the Wise. Great, some guy with a title. As we started to leave, giant cards literally shot out of the ground and surrounded us. I looked around, I was alone in this little card prison, but I could hear Kairi shouting my name. "I'm fine!" I shouted back, slamming my fist against the card in front of me and when that did nothing I summoned up my blades once again and tried to stab it, but there was something about the card that repelled my weapon and sent me flying backward, as far as I could fly anyway, "Oof!"

"Zari, what happened?" Kairi called out, voice tinged with worry.

"Um… let's just saw the cards don't get along with weapons."

"Sora will get us out! Take this chance to rest!"

"But—"

I was cut off by Riku, "Listen to Kairi. Otherwise you'll end up overworking yourself." He sighed and after a moment added on. "_Again._"

At that point, Kairi started asking him questions and I just sat down and leaned against the card wall behind me, closing my eyes and focusing on breathing. It was a calming exercise I'd taught myself a few years ago, to help me out whenever Maleficent had me working every moment of every day. It wasn't as healing as sleep, but it was the next best thing and didn't include the grogginess. I don't remember just how long I sat there, resting, but finally the cards around us disappeared and we were standing in front of Sora, who looked tired and relieved. I wondered silently for a moment if we should have someone else take the next battle to give him a break, but the kid looked determined to keep going, so I kept my mouth shut.

And would have for the rest of the trip if not for Kairi walking up to Donald and saying, "Hey, Donald, can you cast some cure magic on Zaria? She hurt her arm pretty bad earlier and I want to make sure she's one hundred percent, alright?"

The duck looked at her pleading face for a moment and then gave me a suspicious look and as soon as I opened my mouth to say something about being perfectly fine, my hand twitched oddly, sending a twinge of pain up the rest of my arm and I gritted my teeth for a moment, waiting for the pain to pass. Donald saw that and cast a cure spell within a second or two, sending pure relief cascading down my inflamed limb. I let out a sigh and looked at the duck before nodding, "Thanks."

"It's only because Kairi asked me too! I still don't trust you!"

"Perfectly understandable," I replied, "I _did_ kick your butt a year ago. One on three and you guys still lost." I waved my hand dismissively and grinned at the duck as Kairi let out a sigh.

"Don't mind her Donald; she's having fun right now."

"She always did like irritating people." Riku sighed.

"Oh look. Riku acts like he knows me!" I laughed, bouncing over to the too-tall-not-really-a-teenager-but-still-a-teen and poked his stomach, "We knew each other for a few weeks big guy, and part of that time, you weren't really you. Though, you're probably the reason I'm not _still_ working for Maleficent. Thanks."

He raised an eyebrow at my insult followed up by a compliment and thanks, almost confused, but I'd always said all I needed to at once, and if for some reason I felt the need to add something nice onto something mean, I would.

We continued on our way, but soon Riku stopped walking, "I can sense Saïx. He's using something to boost his power. If we can find out what it is, maybe we can use it too."

We entered another room and I saw the blue haired guy from earlier, he called Sora Roxas for a moment and then I summoned my blades, "This guy pissed me off, I'm getting a little vengeance for it whether you guys like it or not."

"You're not taking him on alone." Sora almost growled, readying his keyblade and glaring harshly at the blue haired guy who couldn't get his name right.

"Well, considering he pulled my arm out of its socket earlier, I'd rather not." The Keyblade Master blinked at me for a second, but I ignored him, taking a deep breath and dropping into my stance.

Saïx didn't seem bothered by us at all, instead he continued speaking normally. "Can you feel the moon's power? Moon! Shine down!"

I didn't mention how ridiculous he sounded, but a moment later, he lifted up his arm, a fraction of a second before it reached Sora and I, I saw the vibration as he sent it out and shouted, "Jump!" The keybearer listened to me, but for a moment Donald just looked at me, so I grabbed his feathered arm and launched myself into the air, just in time for the vibration to pass under the two of us. I saw Riku move to cover Kairi and it sent them sliding back, outside the barrier that soon appeared. "This guy is insane." I muttered, lunging forward, feinting a strike to his abdomen and when he moved his huge claymore to block me, I slammed my weapons against his blade and swung myself around, landing a graceful kick to his lower back and flipping away, smirking in triumph. My specialty in battle was using the other's skills against them. I was trained only in the basics and deception, it made fighting head on, like Sora did, very difficult, but at the same time, it made me much more dangerous to a deadly opponent, "You only got my arm earlier because I didn't have my blades!"

I darted forward, keeping close to the ground and as small as possible, Sora jumped at him, brandishing his keyblade only to be knocked away by the huge claymore Saïx was wielding. The man swung the blade in a full arc, but when it came towards me, I jumped out of the way. That was my mistake. Saïx had more control over that huge sword than anyone should have, and he twisted it in his arms and brought it up almost as soon as I jumped, slamming it toward my stomach. I managed to block with my _much_ smaller weapons, but only enough to keep from being gutted; I flew back and hit the barrier with a heavy _thud_. It took a moment for me to catch my breath and as soon as I was back on my feet, Donald cast another cure spell on me. I didn't take the time to thank him, though I probably would after the fight was over, instead I ran toward Saïx again. When he moved to block me, I jumped into the air again, flipping over him and bringing my blades down on his back.

Sora took that moment to run forward and deliver a series of fast attacks now that Saïx had been caught off-guard. When he was done, we both jumped back together, standing on opposite sides of the blue haired man. "Sora!" I shouted to get his attention. He looked at me and I made a series of hand movements, signaling what I wanted him to do. He looked at me blankly for a moment, but then figured it out. I was glad for that, especially since it was hard enough to fight while taking Sora's style into account. I usually fought solo and did all the melee attacks myself, but it seemed that the moment I forced an opening in Saïx's defenses, Sora would take that chance, not giving the blue haired man even a second to recover before he attacked. I guess we were making a pretty good team as it were. I ran forward again, feinting to the left and taking off to the right, readying my blades and jumping straight up, Saïx had been expecting this attack, but it was going to be very, very different this time around. Sora ran forward and jumped as well. In that moment, we clasped hands and he flung me, the lighter of us, down toward Saïx, I spun as I flew toward him, but he moved and my weapons barely managed to clip his shoulder, but at least he was going to be hindered by that.

Our fight continued forever it seemed like, Sora and I were both out of breath, but in good condition thanks to Donald's healing abilities, Saïx was almost done though. "Sora. I'll make an opening, you finish him off." I muttered under my breath. The spiky haired boy nodded and I sprinted forward again, Saïx wasn't having it this time though, he watched me come along and swung his weapon out, clipping my left shoulder. I faltered, dropping to the ground for a moment before pushing the pain from my mind and jumping up, landing on his claymore and running forward again. Instead of defeating him right there, I swung my blades toward his hands and he flung his sword to the left, throwing me off and into the barrier again, but the opening was made and Sora ran forward, leaping into the air and striking the final blow.

Saïx fell to the ground, his claymore crashing into the floor and he reached an arm to the heart shaped moon and mumbled, "Why… Kingdom Hearts… Where is my heart?"

Then he faded into nothing.

Sora let out a frustrated sigh, "Why does everybody keep calling me Roxas!"

"Because Sora," Riku answered, a smile in his voice, "Roxas is your Nobody."

"My… Nobody?" he asked, "But that's impossible, I never turned into a Heartle— Oh."

"It was when you came to save me, remember?" Kairi smiled.

I watched the three of them, feeling rather intrusive. They were best friends and here I was just some former dark agent trying to worm my way into their hearts. It was impossible. It didn't matter how big their hearts were, how much light there was in comparison to darkness, I was still of the dark. I was still going to be considered evil. I looked at my hands, red and rough from the battle, I couldn't compare to them. Friendship was a wonderful thing, but did I really have it? I wanted to think I was Kairi's best friend and that she was mine, but she deserved better and I less. I had never told Kairi of my time with Maleficent, all she knew was that the witch had picked me up when I was barely able to walk and talk, she knew I had no memory of my parents, their names weren't even in the log books that I had lost when I escaped Hollow Bastion with her a year ago.

"Hey, Zari! What are you standing around for?" I looked up to see that the group had started on without me, but Sora had stopped and was waving back at me, using that nickname Riku had given me, "Come on!" he was grinning, so was Goofy, Donald looked as happy as the strange little duck would ever be, Kairi was smiling warmly and Riku… was looking at me like I was an idiot for falling behind. I sighed and caught up to them a moment later. Maybe there was still some hope for me.

* * *

We rounded a corner and standing not too far off was the little mouse king and another man. Sora shouted at the mouse and when everyone else started jogging forward I figured I might as well keep up. The blonde man in the red robes looked almost relieved to see Sora standing there. "Sora, the rest is up to you. And Roxas, I don't think you can hear me, but… for what it's worth… I am sorry."

Mickey the Mouse King let out a squeak, "Ansem!"

"My heart is telling me what I must do. Please allow me to do what it says."

Mickey tried to run forward, shouting, "No!" but Riku grabbed the king's arm and held him back, shaking his head slightly. "Riku!"

"His heart's decided, we can't change that."

"Well well well, I was wondering who would interfere with my plans and look, here you all are. The traitor, the fallen king, the Key bearer and the look-a-like." I looked up to see a man who looked a lot like Riku did now, except his wasn't as deeply tanned, but that was about it. He mentioned me in his sentence; no one else could have been the 'traitor' he spoke of. I took a step back, away from the group, the words stung like a physical blow. I was a traitor? Who did I betray? Maleficent? The darkness? The light? I hadn't betrayed Kairi, I'd kept my promise to Riku, but… still. I _had_ betrayed Maleficent. I _had_ betrayed the darkness. They took me in when I had nothing; they gave me _everything_, everything except friendship, except love. They hadn't given me a life. I had just been used, nothing more than a tool. I became useless to them, I was thrown away by Maleficent and Riku had been the one to find a use for me.

That's when it occurred to me. Sora and Riku were back with Kairi. There was no _need_ for me to protect her anymore. I could feel my heart beating in my throat, I suddenly felt sick, what if I was thrown away _again_, called useless by the people around me again? Somewhere, deep deep down I knew that it would never happen, that it was not in the three of them to call me useless, to even _think_ of anyone that way, but that didn't stop my imagination from acting up. It didn't do anything to keep Maleficent's words from echoing through my brain. What if? What if? What if? I kept asking myself, what if I really _was_ useless and worthless, what if I really was just an object to be thrown away? The darkness still resided in my heart, taking up a huge portion of my soul; I could still command dark magic. I couldn't command the Heartless as I once had, but I was still of the darkness, a traitor to the darkness.

Then there was a bright flash of light that threw all of us backward. I let out a gasp of pain as my back made contact with the floor and my mind blanked for a moment, everything going back. After a few moments I heard voices; people were talking, something had changed. I opened my eyes and immediately blinked them closed again. They _burned_. I held my hands over my eyes for a while, waiting for the sensation to fade away, but it didn't, they just kept _burning_, it was so painful. My eyes started to leak, I wasn't crying, they were just getting really watery, as though they were dried and my tear ducts were producing too much moisture to rehydrate them.

"Hey, Riku, aren't you going to take that off?"

"Oh yeah."

"Why were you wearing that?"

"His eyes couldn't lie."

"And who were you trying to fool huh?"

"Myself."

"You don't have to do so much on your own! You've got friends! Like us!"

"Have you forgotten? I'll tell you why. It's because I'm not a total sap like you."

"Say that again!"

"Hey… Zari, what's wrong?"

"Huh?"

I could feel someone kneeling down next to me and from the sound of the voice, it was Kairi. She sounded worried, but my eyes still burned. I only muttered, "It hurts."

"Riku," the King squeaked from wherever he was standing, "Is that…"

"Yeah. She worked for Maleficent a year ago. For years she was under her control."

"Zari, what hurts? Your eyes?" Kairi questioned me, sounding panicky.

"They _burn_." I responded weakly, "It _hurts_!"

"Zaria," the King said, from the other side of me, "Do you feel any different? Other than the pain in your eyes? Do you feel lighter?"

I didn't respond, my eyes hurt too much to think of anything else, they literally felt as though they were on fire, I wanted to tear them from my skull, to poke my thumbs through them and just end it, I wanted to _blind_ myself it hurt so much.

"What's wrong with her?" Riku asked, sounding almost as worried as Kairi.

Mickey must have moved, but it was quiet for a few more moments and he said, "I think the darkness was forced from her body with that light. I think it left through her eyes and that's why they're burning, but I can't be sure."

"How can you be sure?"

"I'd have to see her eyes."

"Zari, can you open your eyes? Just for a few moments?"

"I can… try…" I murmured; lowering my hands and squeezing my eyes as tightly closed as I could, trying to prepare myself, then I opened them very slowly. The burning lessened slightly. Kairi and the king were leaning over me, curious looks on their faces and Kairi let out a surprised sound, while Mickey only nodded, "What is it?"

A moment later and Riku came into view, looking like… well Riku. His aqua eyes looked back at me, concerned for a moment before widening slightly, "Zari, how long have your eyes been black?"

"Since Maleficent took me in, why?"

"What color were they before?"

"I don't know," I replied, confused, "It's been so long I've forgotten. Why?"

"Because they're not black anymore. Your eyes are silver."

"Huh?" I sat up quickly, almost knocking my forehead into Riku's, but he moved away before that happened, probably seeing it coming with less than amazing foresight, "They aren't black anymore?" I lifted my hands up to my face, trying to check if anything else had changed, but from what I could feel there was nothing out of the ordinary, the burning was lessening even more, only a dull sensation now, one easily ignored. Riku nodded at me and I blinked at him in confusion, "Why?"

Mickey let out a laugh and put a hand on my shoulder, "Because you were never meant for the darkness. Maleficent forced it on you. That's probably why she put you under her mind control."

"But… if I'm not meant for the darkness, then what _am_ I meant for?"

Sora laughed, jumping closer and wrapping an arm around Kairi's shoulders and the other around Riku's. "You're meant to be one of us! A full-fledged Warrior of Light!"

"I've always wanted to say this, but that title really isn't as cool as you seem to believe." I told him blankly, "You guys should think of something better."

"Zari! You said that about our school mascot too!"

"Oh come on, the Destiny Island Dangers? What the heck does a danger even _look _like?" I asked with a dramatic sigh, before grinning up at her, "I don't have to go back, do I?"

"Zari went to _school_?" Riku asked, giving me an almost incredulous look, "You actually wore the skirt?"

"It took a lot of convincing, but I did eventually coax her into going!" Kairi grinned triumphantly as I got to my feet and sighed, arms crossed in front of me, face set in an unhappy frown, "I told her she wouldn't be able to protect me if she didn't enroll and follow the rules and she wasn't too happy about it. She blamed you quite often!"

"Both of you actually." I muttered, "Making me wear something demeaning like that. It's one thing if you like it, but seriously… blue clashes with my hair."

Riku looked at me blankly, seemingly shocked. Then I remembered I'd never really cared about anything like that before, I would just kind of wear whatever, usually black because it was easy to blend in and pants because I never liked the idea of jumping around and fighting in a dress or skirt. It just seemed kind of ridiculous to me, letting my opponents see my underwear was degrading.

"Uh-oh!" Donald quacked a moment later, staring over the railing, "Look!"

We did and not a single one of us liked what we saw. Millions of Heartless were swarming up the stairs, storming the castle. Sora looked a little shaken for a moment before looking at Riku, "What are we going to do?"

"We have to defeat Xemnas. He's the Organization's last survivor."

* * *

Once again we were off, running through the castle at top speed, but it didn't take long for all the Heartless to catch up, pouring through oddly shaped windows and twitching over to us, "There's going to be no end to this." Riku sighed.

"I think we can handle them," Sora grinned.

I summoned my blades, which came to me much easier now, and stood with them, "Three against three million? It's almost even odds. Almost."

Then someone I never wanted to see again appeared in front of us, "Be gone from here!" Maleficent bellowed, Pete at her side. I took a step back, half hiding behind Riku and half ready to fight should I have to. "Leave these creatures to us."

"But there's no way we can take 'em all!" Pete argued.

There was a ridiculous little episode of Pete trying to run away, sharing a few words with Mickey and then rejoining the evil witch. Shouting out a determined: "Bring 'em on!" as he did.

I felt something pushing at my mind for a moment and cast a defiant glare at Maleficent, who smirked upon seeing my eyes, "So, you've thrown away the darkness, child." She spoke with a tone that sent chills down my spine.

Riku placed a calming hand on my shoulder and whispered, "Ignore her. Let's go."

I nodded and as we both turned to leave, Sora had a small almost-argument with King Mickey, but as soon as the Key Bearer figured out that the evil duo was doing as their hearts commanded, he nodded and we continued on our way. It didn't take us too long to find Xemnas. The King, Riku and Sora all held their keyblades at him, and he asked them, all of us really, "Tell me. Why do you hate the darkness?"

"Aw, we don't hate it," Mickey answered, "It's just kind of scary. The worlds are made up of light _and_ darkness, so we don't hate it because it's half of everything. Kind of makes you wonder why we're afraid of the dark."

"It's because of who's lurking inside it," Riku growled.

"Then allow me another question. You accept the darkness and yet choose to live in the light, so why do hate those of us who teeter on the edge of nothing, never given a choice?"

"Because you mess up our worlds." Riku answered.

"Because you don't give a damn about anyone other than yourself." I added in.

Sora decided he couldn't keep quiet any longer and said something that I hadn't even thought about. "Stopping messing around! You can't feel anything, stop pretending you can!"

Xemnas smirked at him and agreed with the Key Bearer and then… they disappeared. I looked around wildly, reaching out and grabbing Kairi's wrist as I did, she wouldn't be able to disappear without taking me with her now and for the next few moments we continued to look around frantically, everyone calling out to Sora who was nowhere in sight. It was kind of frightening actually, to know that he could just disappear like that. Kairi gripped my hand tightly with the one I wasn't already holding on to and I looked at her, she looked scared, very scared. Her eyes darted back and forth from one of mine to the other, as she shivered, afraid for Sora wherever he was. Finally I whispered to her in as calming a voice as I could manage, "Don't worry, he'll come back. I know it." She nodded once and I could only hope that Sora came back soon.

Riku and the king were calling out to Sora, shouting loud enough to make my ears ring, but I didn't complain, I hoped Sora could hear them, wherever he was. A light flashed brightly and then… Sora was standing in front of us. Looking kind of confused. Kairi ran forward, checking to see if he was alright, along with Riku and the king while I stayed back, out of respect for their friendship. The thoughts of being thrown away again had seemed to leave with the darkness.

"Where's Xemnas?" Sora asked.

I answered immediately, having been paying more attention to my surroundings that those fawning over Sora, "Over there!" Xemnas was in the middle of the heart shaped moon, speaking to it loudly, but I wasn't listening. The guys were shouting for Xemnas to stop while Kairi and I noticed a door that had just simply appeared before us just as Xemnas disappeared into the moon-heart. Kairi pointed it out and after a moments discussion, we all went through the door and found nearly a whole world on the other side, Xemnas at the center of it all.

Xemnas let out a deep laugh, looking down at all of us, "So your hearts led you to obliteration. Perhaps it does not pay to always listen to ones heart. I will be sure to remember that." The moment he finished speaking an entire freaking _building_ came flying toward us. Kairi let out a frightened squeak beside me and the seven of us ran backward; Kairi, Mickey and I through the door. It started to close and I almost jumped back through, but Kairi's grip on my hand stopped me, I needed to be there to keep her safe.

Riku turned around, seeing the door closed and opened his mouth as he reached toward us, but it was too late and the door closed. The three of us remained in the castle, locked out of the world that Sora and Riku were supposedly trapped in with Xemnas, all we could do was hope for them to be victorious.

They were. Almost an hour had passed before Xemnas was kneeling in front of us, clutching his chest in pain as Sora and Riku stood in front of him, ready to attack should the Nobody make another move. As he started to fade away, everyone let their guard down. Xemnas noticed. He put all he had left into an attack and aimed at Sora and Riku. My eyes widened as I saw him move and I jumped forward, short swords in my hands and at the ready. Just as my blade pierced his chest, he let loose the ball of pure energy he had condensed and it hit me square in the chest. A fiery pain engulfed my body for a few moments and then everything went black.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I was laying on the beach. Kairi was on my right, King Mickey, Donald and Goofy on my left. I groaned, feeling stiff from all the pain and wondering if I was actually still alive and not just dreaming. The moment the sound left my mouth though, Kairi whirled toward me, exclaiming, "Zari! Are you alright? Are you in pain? What were you _thinking_? Jumping right up to him like that? You could have gotten yourself _killed_!"

Well… her yelling made my ears ring and my head pound, so obviously I was still alive. Sitting up I looked around, it was dark, even for me, but then it might have just _seemed_ darker now because I wasn't filled with darkness anymore. I looked up at my friend, "What happened?"

"Well after you did that stupid thing you did, another portal opened and Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and I went through with you, but then it closed, leaving Sora and Riku in the World that Never Was. Mickey says they'll be here soon, that they _have_ to come back this time. So… I'm waiting."

"Waiting?" I asked, raising a brow at her.

She nodded, smiling happily, "For them to come back!"

"Then I guess I'll wait with you."

"Good." She said with a grin, but then the smile vanished and she gave me a very angry look, "What you did back there was stupid Zari! Just like when you popped your arm back in! Don't scare me like that! I thought… I thought you were going to be gone. If… if you disappeared… I don't know what I would do. You're my best friend Zari, don't… scare me like that." She sniffled, tears had started streaming down her face and my eyes widened in shock, both at what she said and the fact that she was crying.

I swear I heard Donald mutter, "Uh-oh. She made Kairi cry."

But I ignored him and pulled my best friend into a girl hug, "I'm sorry, Kai, I won't do it again. I promise."

"You better promise Riku too." She whispered, a smile in her voice now, even though she was still sniffling, "You almost gave him a heart attack."

I blinked as we parted, looking at her in complete confusion, "Huh?"

She wiped the tears from her face as she giggled, "You'll see."

A few hours later, after Mickey had to convince Donald that no, I would not be returning to Maleficent's side and after I managed to say that the only way I'd go back was if she had Kairi, there was a bright flash of light in the sky and what looked like two shooting stars came flying down toward the ocean. Kairi jumped to her feet in excitement, "It's them!" I jumped up when she said that and we ran to the water's edge, watching eagerly as both Riku and Sora plummeted into the water, breaking the surface again only moments later. Mickey ran after Riku while Donald and Goofy headed toward Sora. Kairi and I stayed dry, grinning and laughing at how ridiculous everyone looked, wading through the water like that.

When they all finally reached the shore, Sora was grinning and telling Kairi what happened after we'd gone through the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Riku who immediately pulled me into a wet hug. My face burned in embarrassment and confusion, cheeks probably turning redder than they ever had before as he put most of his weight on me and said, "Don't you ever scare me like that again. Ever. I thought you died."

"Um…" I muttered, confused, "Sorry?"

He laughed a little bit, his entire body shaking with the sound, "You'd better be."

"It won't happen again. I promise." Riku finally stood on his own, looking into my eyes for a moment before leaning forward, pressing his lips lightly to mine, aqua eyes closed. My own eyes widened with shock and I literally stopped breathing, but after a fraction of a second I closed my eyes too. Kissing back. I hadn't realized Riku felt the same way. When he pulled away, I smirked, "Unless I have to do it for someone special. Like you."

"I promise you won't have to." He whispered, smiling.

Then we heard giggling behind me and I turned to see an audience of five, each and every one of them grinning slyly before falling to the ground laughing, "Riku and Zari standing on the beach, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Oh, you'll pay for that!" Riku growled at Sora.

I laughed, letting myself fall into the sand, grinning, this was friendship, this was love. It showed promise**.**

* * *

**A/N:** All I really fixed were some typos, leaving the story mostly intact. There were a few sentences taken out and added in, but nothing too drastic.

_Edited on: February 26, 2011_


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